Eds, Ice Pops, and Jawbreakers
by Fr0stsamurai
Summary: One-shot: After the events of Movie War: Mega Max, Eiji returns to wandering the earth. He ends up in Peach Creek where he meets three certain Ed-boys...


**Eds, Ice Pops, and Jawbreakers**

Far off in the countryside, a bus drove across the bumpy roads. Apart from the bus driver, there was practically no one on the bus. Except for one…

In one of the middle rows, a Japanese young man looked out the window to his left, watching the sunset. He absentmindedly traced his fingers across half of a red coin he had with him. On the seat next to him was a pole that had a pair of underwear hanging from it.

Eventually, the bus skidded to a stop as the driver turned his head back to face the foreigner.

"End of the line."

The man pocketed the half-coin as he picked up his underwear for tomorrow and headed to the front of the bus.

As he walked to the front door of the bus, however, the driver stopped him.

"You got a plan or something? Not a lot of people wait until the end of a bus's route to get off, especially when it's in the middle of nowhere."

The man gave the bus driver a reassuring nod and grin.

"Don't worry. I've been wandering like this for years. I'll be fine on my own." The foreigner replied in accented English.

"For years, huh?" Replied the bus driver. He then chuckled. "Well, I guess I've got nothing to worry about. Can I at least get a name in case I end up driving you somewhere again?"

"Eiji. Eiji Hino." The man replied.

With that, Eiji stepped down the stairs of the bus as it drove off. Eiji looked at his surroundings. The sun had finished setting a couple of minutes earlier, causing the streetlights and signs of the various stores aligning the streets to brighten up. Eiji vaguely remembered the name of this town on the bus as announced by the driver: Peach Creek.

Hoisting tomorrow's underwear over his shoulder, Eiji set off to find a place to camp out for the night.

"We're rich! Finally, we're stinking rich!"

In another part of Peach Creek, a small boy held up a jar of quarters with a proud look on his face. Next to him were two other boys with equally ecstatic looks on their faces.

"After so long, it seems that we've finally obtained the fruits of our labor, Eddy!" The boy in the black hat said to his small friend.

"Oranges make my nose run." The tallest of the boys said out loud, seemingly not caring about what he said.

"Come on! The candy store doesn't stay open for much longer! If we hurry, we can get some jawbreakers!" Eddy said to his friends. With that, they ran off with the jar of quarters, excited to finally have money.

"Come on! Let's head through the lane, it's faster this way!" Eddy said to his friends as they neared the lane.

They changed their route accordingly, running as fast as their legs could carry them. However, the tallest boy, Ed, ran farther than his two friends. Not helping was the fact that it was getting dark out, causing him to lose sight of what was ahead.

However, the boy in the cap, Double D, was able to see the light from a small fire ahead of Ed.

"Ed! Watch where you're going!" He shouted to his one eyebrowed friend.

"Huh?" Ed replied back.

Suddenly, he tripped, and started rolling, building up speed quickly. He was only a blur now as he rolled on, too dizzy to see what was ahead of him.

Meanwhile, further down the same lane, Eiji let out a yawn as he tended to his campfire. After gathering firewood, he decided to set up shop in this lane. He lifted the stick he was roasting his dinner of fish from, the fish being quite well done.

Eiji set the fish upon a paper plate and took out some utensils from his bag containing money, ID, and other travelling essentials. However, before he could say "Itadakimasu", he suddenly caught sight of a dust cloud to his right that seemed to be getting closer by the second. Unfortunately, Eiji couldn't get out of the way in time and was ran over by something heavy.

WHAM!

Eiji went flying a short distance into the fence in front of him. Unfortunately, he hit it head-first, causing him to get knocked out.

Ed went flying into the fence as well, but due to his thick skull, he was alright.

"Ed!"

He turned towards Double D and Eddy's voices as they ran over to him to check if he was alright.

"This is why you shouldn't have ran ahead of us!" Double D scolded Ed. He looked down, ashamed, and his lip started to quiver.

"Aww, I'm sorry, Double D! I didn't mean to make you worry like a hen's TV dinner overcooking." Ed replied, now ashamed.

Meanwhile, Eddy pouted. Because of Ed's fall, there was no way that they could make it to the candy store today. However, the remaining ashes from the fire Ed ran over caused Eddy to find what appeared to be a shining quarter on the ground. Kneeling to pick it up and dusting it off revealed it to just be half of a quarter. Actually, scratch that. It didn't look at all like a quarter since it had red markings on it.

After getting Ed on his feet again, Double D saw a person next to Ed, knocked out. He had a reasonably sized bump on his head, which Double D assumed to be from him bumping to the fence.

"Sir! Can you hear me?!" Double D shook the man, trying to wake him up. Much to his relief, he stirred awake, his eyes slowly opening.

"Urgh, what…"

Suddenly, Eiji's eyes jolted open.

"Oh no, tomorrow's underwear!"

Eiji stood up quickly, desperately searching for the pole that his underwear for tomorrow hung from. Fortunately, it appeared to be spared from damage as it still leaned against the lane's fence as it had before.

"I'm _extremely _sorry for the inconvenience my friend has caused for you, sir." Double D apologized to Eiji.

"It's fine," Eiji replied. "As long as my underwear for tomorrow is fine, I can go on without worry."

"No offense, man," Eddy started, looking up from the red coin. "But you just got ran over by lumpy here, and what you're worried about the most is your underwear?"

Eiji nodded. "Yeah. My grandfather always told me that-"

Eiji stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what Eddy was holding.

"Hey, give that back!" Eiji suddenly shouted to Eddy, plucking Ankh's Core Medal from his hands. As Eiji inspected it, he sighed in relief as he saw that it was undamaged (Well, as undamaged as it can get, since it's just half of what it used to be). Looking back up to see that these three boys were now looking at him in confusion, Eiji laughed in embarrassment as he pocketed the Core Medal.

"Sorry, it's just that your friend there took something that I hold dear to me." He explained to them.

"_Eddy!" _ Double D said to Eddy, moving in to scold him.

"What? Finder's keepers, Double D." Eddy rebutted.

_Finder's keepers, huh? _Eiji thought to himself, looking up at the night sky. _That sounds like something Ankh would say._

Ankh... Eiji was still wandering around the world, trying to find a way to revive the Bird Greeed. His previous battle alongside Gentaro, Shotaro and Philip against Foundation X further supported his belief that he'll eventually revive Ankh. Even if it took 40 years, Eiji would still revive him, one way or another.

"Um, Mister?" A rough sounding voice said to him. Eiji looked forwards to see a fairly tall boy looking at him. "I am sorry for ruining your campsite."

"Don't worry about it," Eiji grinned. "Like I said, if I have underwear for tomorrow, that's all that matters."

"You seem to have nowhere to stay now, however," Double D noted, looking around at the remains of Eiji's settlement. "Would you like to stay at my house for the night?"

"Are you sure? I don't want to seem like a freeloader." Replied Eiji.

"I insist. It's the least I can do to make it up to you."

Eiji sighed. It probably would be unwise to refuse this boy, since who knows how long it'll take for him to build another fire?

"Well, alright, then." Eiji said, moving to pick up the pole his underwear was on.

"Seriously, Double D?" Complained Eddy. "We don't even know who this guy even is! For all we know, he's a hobo!"

"A _clean _hobo!" Added Ed.

"I prefer the term, 'Wanderer', thank you very much." Said Eiji.

"Alright, _wanderer._ This guy's still a stranger!" Continued Eddy.

"Well, regardless of what you think, giving this man a roof over his head for the night is still my responsibility," Double D said, defending Eiji, "And I'll see to it that he's comfortable."

"More on you then, sockhead…" Grumbled Eddy. "Come on, Ed! We're out of here!"

Ed lifted up one of the boards on the fence for Eddy to go through. "Bye, Mr. Clean Hobo!" Ed waved to Eiji with his other hand before following Eddy.

"It's Eiji!" Eiji shouted to Ed. Sighing, he turned to Double D.

"You have some colorful friends, that's for sure."

Double D laughed and rubbed the back of his hat. "Well, what can I say? Even through the good times and bad, we're inseparable, despite our differences."

Eiji's mind once again went to Ankh. The tiniest boy reminded Eiji of the Greeed the most, what with his brash mouth and fixation on that jar of coins he was holding.

"Anyways, I'm Edd, with two D's, but you can call me Double D." Double D introduced himself to Eiji, sticking his hand out.

"I'm Eiji. Eiji Hino." Eiji introduced himself back, sticking his own hand out to shake Double D's.

They walked out of the lane the long way, as neither of them had the strength to lift fences like Ed. Of course, Eiji had OOO's SaGoZou Combo, but him suddenly turning into OOO would probably scare Double D, he reasoned.

"So, you said you're a wanderer, Eiji?" Double D asked Eiji as they walked.

"That's right," Eiji replied. "I've been all around the world. From my home country of Japan to a bunch of different countries in Africa."

"Interesting!" Double D said, intrigued. "You also seem to have little else on you aside from that pair of underpants and that half-of-a-coin my friend Eddy snatched. Why are you do confident in those undergarments?"

"Well," Started Eiji, "My grandfather always told me that as long as I have a pair of underwear for tomorrow, everything will be fine. So I'm always wandering across the globe with nothing but the clothes on my back and tomorrow's underwear."

"And what of that red coin?" Inquired Double D.

"Well..." How could Eiji explain the circumstances of Ankh and the Greeed to Double D? As they reached the doorstep of his house, Eiji decided to tell Double D the full story later. For now, he'll just settle in for the night.

Double D opened the door and beckoned Eiji to come inside. The Kamen Rider realized how young Double D was and asked, "Hold on, what about your parents? Will they be okay with this?"

"My parents are always gone for work," Double D explained as Eiji entered his house. "But even if they were here, I'm sure that they would be hospitable enough to have you for the night."

Double D had Eiji sit on the couch while he prepared hot chocolate for both of them. As Double D worked in the kitchen, Eiji looked around the living room. It was a clean room, with Eiji observing that it seemed to be devoid of dust. Eventually, Double D came back holding a tray with two mugs. He set the tray on the table in front of the couch and sat himself down next to Eiji.

"So about that coin of yours, Eiji," Double D asked as he picked up one of the mugs and took a sip. "What's your history with it?"

Eiji dug through his pockets and pulled out Ankh's Core Medal.

"Ah, this?" Eiji set the Medal on the table. "The story behind it is quite outlandish."

"Trust me, I've seen my share of outlandish things in my lifetime." Double D said to Eiji, flashing back to when him, Ed, and Eddy tore apart reality in their search for the mysteries of life.

"Well, this coin, or Core Medal as it's officially called, is all that remains of my friend, Ankh."

"Core Medal? I think I remember reading something about that in a textbook on European history." Double D remembered glancing through a textbook at school on European history. It had a small section about a European king in the 13th century that used objects known as Core Medals, but that was all Double D could read about it.

"Anyways, in order to save my life, he had to sacrifice himself, and that Core Medal is all that remains of him."

Double D placed his cup on the tray and picked up the Core Medal to get a closer look at it. It had red lines on it, and Double D could infer that it created an image, even though it was broken in half.

"Magnificent!" Double D exclaimed as he ran his fingers across it. "You're friend Ankh was made out of _this _medal?"

"Well, along with the other half, he was made up of 8 other Core Medals." Eiji explained.

Double D nodded as he gave the Core Medal back to Eiji.

"I actually have a secondary goal with my wandering: To find a way to bring Ankh back to life." Eiji continued, taking a sip of his cocoa.

"What makes you think you'll be able to bring Ankh back to life? Resurrecting someone from the dead is impossible, especially someone with as strange of a body structure as Ankh."

"Well," Eiji leaned back on the couch. "Not so long ago, I actually met a version of Ankh from the future."

Double D nearly choked on his cocoa. "The _future?_" He asked Eiji, who nodded. "But that's impossible! Humanity hasn't invented a way of traveling through time yet!"

However, despite his shock, Double D could tell that Eiji was being serious.

"Ankh coming from the future means that someday, no matter how far, he'll be back." Eiji finished, looking down at Ankh's Core Medal in his hand.

Double D yawned and looked at his watch. It was only a little bit before 9, but he was already exhausted. Maybe now would be the time to retire for today.

"Shall I get out some blankets for you, Eiji?" Double D asked as he picked up the tray and empty mugs.

"Please." Eiji yawned.

In only ten minutes, Double D had set up some blankets on the couch for Eiji.

"If you need anything, I'll be upstairs." Double D told Eiji before going up to his room for the night. However, Eiji had already dozed off as Double D said that.

As Eiji opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on a rooftop. Looking down, he realized that he was at the cul-de-sac he arrived at the previous night.

"Ah. You're here." An all too familiar sinister voice spoke up next to him.

Eiji looked to his left to see Ankh in his human form, sitting on the roof as well.

"Ankh?! What are you-"

Before Eiji could finish, Ankh held an ice pop up to Eiji.

"Hurry up and eat it before it melts." Ankh simply said as he licked his own ice pop.

The two ate mostly in silence as they looked over the neighborhood.

"It's a good thing I managed to enter your dreams this time, Eiji." Ankh said as he took a bite. "It's been next to impossible to enter your other dreams."

"You can enter dreams now, Ankh?" Eiji jokingly asked the Greeed. "You sound like a horror movie villain."

"And what if I am?" Ankh replied, holding up his right arm, still in its Greeed form.

"Anyways, those boys you met last night, Eiji, they have quite powerful desires.

"Desires?" Eiji perked up. "Ankh, don't tell me you're going to-"

"Don't worry, I'm just observing is all." Ankh finished. "The smallest of them especially has a lot of desire in him since he's so obsessed with his money.

"Kind of reminds me of a certain _someone _and his Cell Medals." Mumbled Eiji.

"What'd you say?!" Ankh snapped, gesturing at Eiji with his Greeed arm again.

Despite his familiar antagonistic attitude, Eiji was glad to be able to talk to Ankh like this again. Even after they finished their ice pops, they looked down at the neighborhood. Eventually, however, everything started going white, signifying the end of the dream.

"Eiji, take care of those boys." Ankh said to Eiji, red wings sprouting from his back.

"Don't worry, I will." Eiji nodded.

Eiji woke up once more, except this time he recognized where he was. Double D's house, after he allowed him to sleep there for the night.

As Eiji sat up, he saw a sticky note on the coffee table. He picked it up and read it:

_I'm in town with my friends. There's Chunky Puffs cereal in the third cupboard from the right in the kitchen._

_-Edd_

Eiji smiled. Double D's hospitality was welcoming, but Eiji knew that he couldn't stay and burden him any longer.

He got up and folded the sheets on the couch the best he could. After that, he changed into his underwear hanging on his pole and left the house.

Eiji put his free hand on his forehead in an attempt to block the bright sunlight. It was a beautiful summer day, and despite that, there was practically no one outside. Eyes getting used to the sunlight, Eiji put down his hand as he started walking to the bus stop.

"Oh hoh, and who may you be?"

Eiji was walking for only two minutes when he heard that foreign accent. He turned his head to find a blue haired young man standing there. He was holding a leash that was wrapped around...a pig?

"Wait. That underwear..." The person put his hand to his chin in thought and then lit up. "Eiji, if Rolf isn't mistaken?"

Suddenly, a stream of memories of a bizarre village came back to Eiji, including a memory of a small blue haired boy.

"Rolf! It's been so long!" Eiji said, a smile appearing on his face.

"Nana will be so happy! She'll make your favorite dish, too!"

Eiji cringed a bit. When he had visited Rolf's village two years before the reawakening of the Greeed, his Nana had insisted on making her famous stew for Eiji. The stew was...edible, Eiji noted, and he managed to choke down the large bowl she had made him, so as to not break her heart. Unfortunately, she took this quite pridefully as she gave Eiji an entire thermos full of it when his time of departure came.

"Well, actually I, uh, just had a hearty breakfast before." Eiji fibbed, patting his empty stomach.

Luckily, Rolf was convinced by his lie and nodded his head. "Very well. But seeing you again makes Rolf leap with joy!"

He picked up the pig next to him and held him up to Eiji's face.

"Doesn't it, Wilfred?"

The pig gave Eiji a big lick on his cheek, followed by a low oink as Rolf sat it back down.

"Well, it's surely been a while, Rolf," Eiji said while wiping the saliva off of his face. "But I was actually on my way outside of town, I'm afraid."

Rolf deflated a bit. "Oh. Either way, Rolf is happy to seen you again, Eiji! Safe travels!"

Eiji waved goodbye to Rolf as he continued to the bus stop.

Eiji walked through the town center. It was fairly quiet here, too. However, as he continued to walk, the door of one of the stores ahead of him opened as three familiar looking boys stepped out.

"We hit the jackpot, you guys!" The smallest one whom Eiji remembered was named Eddy said.

"Why would we hit Jack's pot?" Ed asked, carrying an armful of large circular objects.

"It's a figure of speech, Ed." Double D replied. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eiji and waved him over.

"Eiji! Good morning!"

Eiji waved back as he headed towards them.

"Good morning to you too, Double D." Eiji replied.

"Double D, you seriously had that hobo over?" Eddy asked Double D in disbelief.

"He did indeed," Eiji said. "And he's a very good host as well."

Double D spotted the underwear Eiji had hoisted over his shoulder.

"Leaving Peach Creek, Eiji?" He asked.

Eiji nodded. "Uh huh. I need to get back to travelling."

"Well, I was going to give you this when I returned to my house, but now's a better time than ever!"

Double D then pulled one of the objects out of Ed's arms (Ignoring Eddy's protests) and held it up to Eiji.

"Excuse me, but what _is _this, exactly?" Eiji asked, confused. It was too big to be a regular candy, and yet it looked powdery.

"It's a jawbreaker!" Double D explained to Eiji. "It's what my friends and I work to get nearly everyday."

Eiji accepted the jawbreaker from Double D. He had heard of these treats, but was never able to see one in person. Despite its appearance, it was nearly light as a feather as Eiji weighed it with his hand.

"Well, then, shall we eat?" Asked Double D.

The four sat on the curb to enjoy their jawbreakers. While Eiji was initially shocked at how easily the Eds could fit those large candies in their mouths, Eiji found that he was able to do it as easily too. As he sucked on it, the sweet taste spread through his mouth. It seemed like the smaller it became as Eiji sucked on it, the sweeter the jawbreaker seemed to taste. As they sat there, Eddy was talking to his friends about the next scam, whatever that was. He was claiming how it was the biggest one yet and they would exit being richer than they were after the previous one.

As the jawbreaker finally shrunk to nothing inside Eiji's mouth, he sighed.

"That was quite something. I don't think I've ever had a jawbreaker before!" Eiji said.

"And now you see why we work so hard to obtain them!" Double D said as he finished his own.

"One of the neighborhood kids has a whole garage full of them, but Shovelchin won't let us have any!" Grumbled Eddy as he finished his own jawbreaker.

As Ed finished his own jawbreaker, he didn't talk about how delicious it was, but rather, he pointed to Eiji's shoulder.

"Mr. Clean Hobo? You've got something on there."

Confused, Eiji put his hand on his right shoulder. To his surprise, he found that a red feather had landed on there.

"Are you actually a bird? Are you a _chicken?" _ Ed continued as Eiji took the feather off his shoulder.

"So you're with us after all, huh, Ankh?" Eiji asked himself.

Double D perked up at the mention of Ankh. He remembered Eiji talking about Ankh and how that Core Medal, he called it, was all that remained of him. Did that feather come from Ankh's spirit watching over them?

Eiji held the feather up to Double D. "Here, in exchange for everything you've done for me." He said.

"A feather for a place to stay and jawbreakers? That ain't a good payment at all!" Eddy exclaimed. "Double D, are you just gonna let this freeloader get off scot-free?"

"Why yes, Eddy. I am." Double D said to Eddy as he accepted the feather from Eiji.

Despite Eiji leaving shortly afterwards, Double D knew that he would never forget him. He decided to not do any research on the feather in his room, instead framing it and hanging it on his wall, with one label being on it: _Ankh._

_End_


End file.
